Gosht Kali Mirch – Lamb in Black Pepper Curry

The champagne went in the fridge. The quality lamb was acquired. The stage was set for the mid-week girly dinner. Now I needed a recipe to really wow the girls on a Wednesday night.
I chose to dust off one of my Indian cookbooks.
Now, Indian cookbooks are objects of great desire in my home. I purchase many. Mainly to see the spines lined up on the bookshelf. Occasionally I leaf through each recipe. Ogle over the full page of ingredients required. And then stick it back on the shelf.
This time, I decided to put one to better use. Out came this one. It was the photos of the whacky chef with elephants in South India that first attracted me.
But ultimately it was his sister's recipe for Gosht Kali Mirch or Lamb with Black Pepper that clinched it.
The recipe was simple, used (comparatively) few ingredients and so delicious that I had to restrain myself from eating it all immediately. Not for the faint hearted or chilli challenged mind you.
We'll see if the girls leave it on the shelf.

Method:

Chop the onion into little pieces and grate or puree the garlic and ginger together. Quarter the tomatoes.

In a large pot, bring the oil to heat over a high flame. When it’s hot, add all the whole spices. As they splutter, mix in the onion, garlic and ginger.

Fry this mixture for about five minutes until it turns a rich golden colour. Then add in the tomatoes, chillies, black pepper and garam masala. Stir for two minutes and as the tomatoes disintegrate, mix the yogurt and the lamb.

Mix the lamb into the masala vigorously. Add a pint of water, cover and cook on a medium flame until the lamb is tender. When it is, raise the heat and reduce the volume of liquid until the oil separates from the curry.

Serve with a squirt of lemon juice and chopped coriander.

Ingredients:

Feeds 4-6

800gm lamb shoulder, diced with bone

2 small tomatoes

3 medium onions

2 tbsp Greek yogurt

2 black cardamoms

8 green cardamoms

2 x 2" cinnamon sticks

6 cloves

2 tsp whole black pepper

2 green chillies

2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

4 garlic cloves

Half tsp garam masala

3" fresh ginger

3 tbsp oil

11 responses to “Gosht Kali Mirch – Lamb in Black Pepper Curry”

I’ve gotten myself committed to hosting a party for my 10 sisters-in-law so that we can all model saris I brought back from a trip to India. I’m searching for ideas for easy to make Indian dishes for a crowd (30 people altogether), and am enjoying your site and your recipes. Can any of these be made ahead and frozen? This lamb dish sounds delicious and so does your palak paneer. Also, where does one buy paneer?

You can freeze everything apart from rice and potatoes. I always make things in advance, staggered over two three days and stick them in the freezer. This is particularly handy when you’re feeding 10 and sisters in law at that!!

I buy paneer in my local supermarket (Tesco or Waitrose). You could call to check they stock it. If not, your nearest ethnic store will have loads of it.

OMG! I thought I was the only one who didn’t make use of cookbooks for the purpose that they were intended for- to cook from. Most of the time I’m just admiring how good they look on my black and beautiful bookshelf. 😀

Lamb is a good healthy meat to eat because – unlike pigs and chickens – it is hard to do anything too horrible and intensive to sheep. They just live outside and do their thing. Lamb is the one meat that I feel OK about eating without quizzing (I was going to say “grilling”) the poor waiter/cook about how it was reared.

[…] … & she never disappoints! This recipe from her blog is a wonderfully easy lamb dish, Gosht Kali Mirch / Spicy Lamb in Black Pepper that I cooked recently, twice, & I love the flavours that caress this curry. Generous lot of […]